The present invention relates generally to telecommunication networks and more particularly to the Internet and Internet services.
Currently, many companies provide call center automation systems and services, such as automatic call distributors, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, coordinated voice and data delivery, and voice mail. Growth in the use of such systems and services is expected to continue. While these technologies provide successful solutions to certain customer demands, they do have some limitations. For instance, callers interacting with an IVR self-service system can only be given a limited set of options at any point because of the tendency of people to become frustrated by long lists of options. Also, effectively communicating large amounts of data over the telephone can be difficult. For example, providing a customer with a line-by-line billing record over the telephone is typically not feasible. Additionally, communicating certain types of common data, such as names and addresses, or other alphanumeric data, requires specialized hardware to perform speech recognition and speech synthesis.
The recent explosion in the use of the Internet provides many new business opportunities and presents significant opportunities to providers of traditional network services. The number of Internet users is growing exponentially, stimulating network service providers to create new services to capture this new market. It is estimated that by 1999, 14 million households will subscribe to Internet access services. This number, however, reflects only a portion of the total number of Internet users because many people have access to the Internet through their school or place of employment. In fact, the current number of Internet users is estimated to be 30 million. The debut of the Microsoft Network service with full Internet access and the addition of Internet access to online services such as Prodigy, CompuServe, and America Online can be expected to bring even more potential customers online. It is projected that use of the Internet will continue to rise and therefore it is desired to provide customer services and access to information to Internet users.
One successful and widely publicized portion of the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW or the Web). At a conceptual level, the WWW can be thought of as a vast, hyperlinked bank of data. To gain access to the WWW, a user must install on his/her computer WWW browser software and transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) software and obtain a network connection from an Internet access provider. Once connected to the WWW, a user utilizes the browser to display "home pages"--graphical representations of information stored on WWW servers connected to the Internet.
WWW home pages include "hot links," which are usually represented by the browser as underlined text or as special graphical elements. When a user viewing a home page clicks on one of the hot links, the browser retrieves from the WWW network a home page associated with the selected link. Linked pages may be retrieved from the same or different servers. The sources of linked pages are transparent to the user. Thus, when navigating links between WWW pages, a user gets an impression of dealing with a single, interconnected "web" of information.
As currently implemented in the WWW, each hot link included in a Web document is assigned an address called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL includes: 1) a protocol indicator; 2) the address of the Internet server on which a particular document resides (generally this address is specified as the Internet domain name of the host or the host IP address); and 3) the address of the document on the server (this address generally consists of a full file name, including a directory path, of the file which contains the document). For example, in URL:http://www.bellcore.com/aboutbell2.html, "http," which stands for hypertext transfer protocol, identifies the protocol used between browsers and the Web servers; "www.bellcore.com" corresponds to the address of Bellcore's (the present assignee) Web server; and "aboutbell2.html" identifies the document.
Many companies have home pages that may be accessed in the above manner and that allow Internet users to get more information regarding companies. However, many corporate home pages are still in their infancy. Most provide only generic, non-customer specific information. Additionally most corporate home pages do not permit customers to make queries, get customer-specific information or to make changes to their service. Adding these capabilities would create a more personalized and dynamic exchange with existing or potential customers. Interactions could be custom tailored and product advertisements could be made user specific based on customer profiles or other data stored in corporate databases. Additionally, allowing Internet users to directly access information, products and services would allow for closing sales with customers who have become interested due to the product literature available from the home page. This potential may be lost when the home page is not integrated with the corporate systems that allow access to such products and services.
Some companies have started linking their home pages to their corporate systems. This is typically done by building point to point interfaces between the Web server and the corporate systems. This can be costly, however, particularly when compared to the potential for reuse of existing interface implementations currently in place in IVR systems. Such interfaces can also make it difficult to ensure consistency in customer interactions across a company's various channels, and make it difficult to obtain an overall view of the effectiveness of each channel.
Another current solution for linking home pages and corporate systems is electronic mail, or e-mail. However, e-mail normally requires staff to review the e-mail requests, apply business rules to determine if the requests are appropriate, input the request into the correct corporate system, and respond to the customer. These many steps restrict the advantages of automation.
Currently, Pacific Bell offers services over an agentless, telephone based Electronic Channel New Product Line (ECNPL). ECNPL call volume is projected to increase markedly. Such electronic interactions, as compared to interactions via traditional access methods, for example, over the telephone with an agent, emphasize improved operational efficiency, high availability, reliability, and security. Additionally, using ECNPL, it is often possible to decrease the activation interval or provide immediate activation for changes in service.
However, some self-service offerings are difficult to provide through a telephone interface such as ECNPL. Such offerings may become more feasible using the powerful graphical interface of the WWW. For instance, many advanced intelligent network (AIN) services, such as Do-Not-Disturb and Follow-Me services are cumbersome to instantiate and administer through a telephone channel.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a customer contact services node Internet gateway (CCSN/IG) that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
It is desirable to provide a CCSN/IG by which a user can access a provider's information and services via the Internet.
It is additionally desirable to enhance a provider's existing Internet and home page capabilities to include more complex transactions.
It is also desirable to provide a common toolset for implementing business rules and data access which will leverage the equipment and experienced staff already involved in service creation via an ECNPL.
It is further desirable to provide a common toolset for tracking and reporting on various aspects of a company's customer care offerings including integrating data across the different channels.
Additional objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the written description and appended claims hereof, as well as the appended drawings.